The Walking Dead: Season Two - PlayStation 4

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In The Walking Dead: Season 2 on the PlayStation 4, we follow Clementine through a series of lose-lose situations in which the only way forward is by making a decision that will negatively impact the ones around her.

7.2

Every October the hit television series 'The Walking Dead' takes over the entertainment landscape. Via a fantastic cast and wonderful story to draw inspiration from, it is no surprise that the show has hit heights of popularity that many would not have believed possible during its first season. Now the series, based on an amazing comic book, has risen to even greater heights with the popularity of its video game offshoot by TellTale Games. The Walking Dead video game, for all major consoles and mobile technology, is proud to present the 'The Walking Dead: Season Two'. Season Two continues the tradition that the first installment of the franchise initiated: prepare to be brought on a gripping tale of horror, survival, action and even a few laughs. Let's take a look at what TellTale Games decided to present to us with this new installment.

This is Clementine's Tale.

Whether Clementine was always going to be an integral part of this expanded Walking Dead universe or not is impossible to tell. All that we can say for sure is that she quickly earned the love of fans everywhere as the plucky 12 year old with a survivor's attitude and heart of gold in the first installment of the game. In Season One of The Walking Dead we got to know Clementine as she is during the great Zombie apocalypse. She's a hardened survivor capable of doing what she needs to in order to survive. Season Two lets us go back in time to revisit all of the steps along the way during her journey from awkward innocent child to the gal we know today.

Season Two brings a lot of what we fell in love with in the initial installment back to the forefront of our minds. We follow Clementine through a series of lose-lose situations in which the only way forward is by making a decision that will negatively impact the ones around her. She is a survivor, for sure, but she wasn't always that way. Season Two puts the decision making straight into the hands of the gamer with their trademark Quick Time Events and multi-outcome gameplay. Much like a more linear Fall Out, we get to guide Clementine on her journey. Do we make the hard choices and live? Do we forget who Clementine is, at her very core? The decision is yours, gamer, and choose wisely.

Our exploration of the Walking Dead Universe is always interesting though at times it feels destined to stay too gritty. The first Season of The Walking Dead had a great Father-Daughter dynamic with Lee Everett. This allowed for us to enjoy moments of levity and innocence. There wasn't the constant burden to succeed and live in a world gone to hell, even though those elements were always at play. In Season Two with Clementine so visibly alone the pressure is always there. It never lets up. The stark colors and high contrast puts everything into the perpetually eerie state of being that will have you sliding closer to the edge of your seat. Is this the time that Clementine doesn't make it past another crazed survivor? Can she outrun this small horde? She's so small and weak looking that it is easy to see why she shouldn't make it. But with your help she survives, and survives, and survives.

Though the thrill is always there in Season Two of The Walking Dead there does seem to be a missing spark that gave the first installment so much life. While you often times have the choice of live and death at your hands, especially for other minor characters, it rarely feels like it pays off. Regardless of the choices you make regarding the ancillary characters, good or bad, you will almost inevitably end up in the same part of the plot no matter what decision you make. Perhaps this is a statement on life: no matter what choices you make you will be propelled toward some inevitable conclusion. That sounds nice, but it is equally likely that TellTale Games skimmed back on the flexibility of their story in order to tell it the way that they WANT it to be told. It's not good, or bad, it's just the way things are. Much like Clementine's world, you have to just roll with what you're offered.

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